Instant message communication systems allow a user to chat electronically with other users. Generally each chat conversation is associated with particular users and a text message sent from one user is broadcast to other users in the chat conversation. Such communication systems typically present the chat conversation to a user as a list of text messages that have been exchanged during the chat conversation. Each such chat conversation that a user can be involved in is represented as a separate list. When a new message is received for a particular conversation the message is added to the list that corresponds with the particular conversation. If the list is hidden or minimized the user must cause the list to be presented so as to read the new message.